Cruise Ship Passangers Surprised By Pirate Attack

SEBASTIAN ABBOT
Associated Press
December 3, 2008 at 11:57 AM EST
MUSCAT — Passengers on a luxury cruise liner attacked by pirates in the dangerous waters between Yemen and Somalia said Wednesday they were surprised by the assailants' boldness and described hearing the “Pop! Pop! Pop!” of the pirates' rifles firing at the ship.
Sunday's attack on the nearly 600-foot long American-operated M/S Nautica in the Gulf of Aden was the latest evidence that pirates have grown more aggressive, viewing almost any ship on the water as a potential target. But the attack lasted only five minutes and the ship with about 650 passengers and 400 crew members on board sped away quickly and was not seized.
“We didn't think they would be cheeky enough to attack a cruise ship,” Wendy Armitage, of Wellington, New Zealand, told The Associated Press shortly after disembarking the ship for a daylong port stop in the Omani capital of Muscat.
“It was very minor really,” she said of the attack. “But it was a surprise that they attacked us, and they did fire shots.”
No one on the ship was injured, and the vessel was able to speed away from the pirates. The attack happened on Sunday.
In about 100 attacks on ships off the Somali coast this year, 40 vessels have been hijacked. Thirteen ships remain in the hands of pirates along with more than 250 crew members including a Saudi supertanker filled with $100 million worth of crude and a Ukrainian ship loaded with 33 battle tanks.
International warships patrol the area and have created a security corridor in the region under a U.S.-led initiative, but attacks on shipping have not abated.
The cruise liner was travelling from Rome to Singapore, a route that most directly must pass through the dangerous strait between Somalia and Yemen.
During the assault, pirates fired eight rifle shots at the ship, according to its operator, Oceania Cruises, Inc. But the captain ordered passengers inside and accelerated quickly, leaving the pirates far behind in their 20- to 30-foot speedboats.
“I couldn't see them shooting, but I heard them hitting the ship, ‘Pop! Pop! Pop!”' said Clyde Thornberg, on vacation from his home in Bend, Ore. “It wasn't really scary because the captain announced for the safety of everybody to get inside and get down, and by that time he was pouring on the coals to the ship and was outrunning them.”

Injured boy doesn't know attacks in India killed relatives

• Story Highlights
• Boy's parents, uncle, three cousins killed at attack on train station in Mumbai, India
  
• Boy, 13, is recovering from shrapnel wounds
  
• Brother has not told him about the deaths, is worried how it would impact recovery
  
• Brother says he will explain to boy, show him burial place when he leaves hospital
  

MUMBAI, India (CNN) -- As the boy, 13, looks up from his Mumbai hospital bed, his adult brother rests his hand on the boy's forehead, almost shielding him from the pain he does not yet know -- much of his family was killed in Wednesday's terrorist attacks.

Gunmen entered the Victoria Terminus train station Wednesday and opened fire.

Wednesday's well-planned but indiscriminate attacks targeted two luxury hotels, a Jewish center and the Victoria Terminus train station, where the boy's parents, uncle and three cousins waited to board.

The terrorists burst in, firing automatic weapons and hurling grenades, leaving the boy's six family members among the 179 killed across the city.

The names of the boy and his brother are being withheld to protect their identities. Watch the brother show where family was killed »

The 13-year-old is not alone in tragedy. A 2-year-old boy became an orphan on his birthday Saturday, after his mother and father, who was a rabbi at the Jewish center, were gunned down.

The 2-year-old was taken to Israel on Monday and will live with the nanny who carried him to safety at the Taj Hotel last week. And he is probably too young to remember the horror of November 26, 2008.

But at the JJ Hospital in Mumbai, the 13-year-old has questions for his brother and his doctors -- where is the rest of his family? Why haven't his parents visited?

His brother won't tell him yet.

"I feel that if we tell him, he is so young he will be terribly affected by it. He is badly injured now and there might be problems," the brother told CNN. "That's why we thought it's best not to tell him. He's just a kid."

Dr. BM Subnis, dean of the hospital, said the boy will have to learn the truth soon.

"We have told him that we are locating your parents and they shall soon come back and meet you," Subnis said. "But the way I see him over the days now, the child is very smart and intelligent and has understood that his parents are no more. Everybody is hiding from him that they are no more."

Subnis said they feared telling the boy would send him into shock and impact his recovery from shrapnel wounds.

"That's what we earlier thought," Subnis said. "But now, this hiding is affecting his recovery."

So when the time is right, the brother will share the devastating news.

"Once he's out of the hospital, I'll take him to the place where our parents are buried and tell him this is your mother and this is your father and this is the rest of your family and whatever has happened has happened," the brother said.